APPG “Connecting Communities” Meeting with Rt Hon Hilary Benn Secretary of State for
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Present:
Stacey Adams
Rt Hon Kevin Barron MP
Judith Brodie
Rt Hon Hilary Benn MP
Isobel Byrne Hill
John Errington
Libby Ferguson
Jim Fitzpatrick MP
Geoffrey Findlay
Julia Goldsworthy MP
Deidre Holes
Oliver Johnson
Lord Judd of Portsea
Max Larcombe
Diane Lewis
Stephen Lyon
Nick Maurice
Laura Moffatt MP
Gordon Morris
Katy Newell-Jones
Pepi O’Neill
Duncan Parker
Will Snell
Nigel Thompson
Cathy Welch
Ivor Wells
John Whitaker
Jenny Willott MP
Raleigh International
Rother Valley
VSO
Secretary of State for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs
Arup
UKOWLA
UK Local Government Alliance for International Development
Poplar and Canning Town
Falmouth and Camborne
Hamilton Trust
Medsin
Achievers International
Wales Somaliland Link
BUILD
Crawley
Feed the Minds / InterClimate Network
BUILD
Africa Invest
SkillsVenture
Chairman, BUILD
DFID
Local Government Association
BUILD Trustee
Cardiff Central
Nick Maurice
Spoke about briefly about the community partnership role of BUILD and the DFID funded schemes, DGSP,
Health Links scheme and the new Community Linking scheme which have been supported by BUILD’s
lobbying through the APPG. Nick outlined the potential collaboration of BUILD with DEFRA around :
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Climate change
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Transition towns
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Food security at community level
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Address these issues at a global level as well as community level.
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Bring community partnerships into DEFRAs international strategy
Judith Brodie, VSO
Project PolVol Judith outlined the purpose of the scheme.
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VSO could see that parliamentarians were very experienced with lobbying and influencing legislation
and some of the partners VSO are working with need a stronger voice with their governments or in their
communities. The MPs could put their experience of lobbying to good use, helping to advise the
community organisations on how to influence government and policy making processes.
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It gives the MPs an opportunity to live and work within a community in a developing country.
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MPs have made a real impact in development terms and they gained a deeper understanding of the
worlds poorest communities.
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Contribution to increasing awareness of development issues in the UK on their return.
Some MPs were placed in a country where they had significant Diaspora communities within their
VSO’s overseas programmes are very keen to have more MP volunters because of the impact they
have had.
11 MPs went in 2008 and VSO are hoping for 15 this year.
Still time for MPs / Lords to put their name down to go out this year!
Kevin Barron has four secondary schools linked in his constituency. CPA visit has spawned school links.
Education links are the most powerful.
Reports from PolVols
Julia Goldsworth – Falmouth and Camborne – went to Anglophone North West Cameroon, she talked to
the Mayors of the local councils about de-centralisation. Looked at the resources they had available, and how
they could push the decentralisation forward. On the whole the NGOs were better developed than some of the
Local Authorities which had no internet or electricity. She saw councils in action and then got them together
for seminars on working together. Had close support from VSO mentor who made it clear how her short
weeks fitted into longer term project. She felt was going in ‘under the radar’, and was treated with alternate
suspicion and delight.
Wanted to set up a twinning with the local council, Julia talking to LGA, wants to build real links with parts of
the community not simply an opportunity to give resources. The experience keeps triggering lateral thoughts.
Jim Fitzpatrick – Poplar, Canning Town. His constituency is 25-30% Bangladeshi. He went to Bangladesh
with his wife, Shelia, who is a doctor. At the beginning he was sceptical. They worked with the Population
Services and Training Centre (PSTC) which delivers public services in health, births, HIV/Aids. He felt that
building confidence raised moral. Jim and Shelia did a session for the senior management team of NGOs,
which was a three day confidence building course which they completed in 6 hours.
Meeting HIV/Aids groups, 22-23 groups all being funded by different agencies and they won’t relinquish that
funding and work together. Met a number of international VSO volunteers from Malaysia and other countries.
Jim is taking the international development message back to his constituency and encouraging young
Bangladeshis in constituency to volunteer when they leave school.
Jenny Willott – Cardiff Central has large Somali and Pakistani community and slightly samllerBangladeshi
community in her constituency. Went to Zambia worked with an NGO working with HIV/TB health issues.
Spent two days visiting volunteers to see what was being done on the ground. (Jenny has a background in
international development).
Described people who have no income and can’t buy food, need food to take HIV drugs or you are sick. It’s a
vicious circle.
Started off running seminars for partner organisation. Drew up a short list of political and campaigning
objectives. Put together a campaigning plan that fitted in with their Strategic Plan which will be ongoing.
Built a very strong relationship with the local MP who was a woman and a nurse, and it was pushing at an
open door. The MP got really involved, went to all the external meetings and sent a member of staff to one of
the weekly support group meetings held at VK.
Went to meet a group of MPs working on HIV in their parliament. VSO wanted to see if they could build up
capacity of all party group. Met with considerable gender issues!
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Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) has a programme with VSO sending civil servants on secondments.
She has set up “friends of VK” with other returned volunteers in Cardiff to raise awareness and funding.
Laura Moffatt – Crawley – (was a nurse) went to Sierra Leone. The project was a massive risk on both sides,
risk for VSO, and for their partners, it could have been a disaster. It was important to make sure there you left
a lasting legacy.
It was the best thing she has ever done. She is now committed to the cause of nurses in SL, supporting and
staying in touch. SL broken after civil war. Most dangerous place to have a baby in the world. DFID staff
were wonderful.
Opinion of MP not good amongst constituents but being a nurse opened all doors. Nurses organisation is
virtually on its knees, explained what RCN does here and couldn’t believe it. Spent one day with Minister for
Health and Sanitation she was able to explain that things weren’t what he thought they were. She helped on
wards.
After returning – Brighton University has supplied nursing books, and she has obtained fee transport to deliver
them to SL. Given lots of talks in constituency – really glad to stay with VSO people in their home.
The PolVols need to be ambassadors for the programme.
Response from Rt Hon Hilary Benn MP, Secretary of State for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs
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It is obvious that the effect of this opportunity on the PolVols has been remarkable. In Dakar he visited
a school for children who had to work, ran three shifts a day, turned up for 2-3 hours/day. Attendance
about 98%, better than attendance rates in all secondary schools in his constituency.
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Helping us to understand who are neighbours are in the world. We need to work together to support
one another.
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Glad new things have developed since leaving DFID.
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Support and sustain passionate individuals.
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DEFRA is about helping us to live sustainably in the world, and building some of that understanding into
DEFRA would be something to discuss.
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Met Office / Environment agency working together on floods –
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Leaving to live with the climate change we have made inevitable – keen to assist, share experience,
learn from each other.
John Whitaker
Mutuality of benefit has come over very strongly through the stories we have heard.
People live joined up lives not departmentalised like government.
Most partnerships start with a passionate person, who is the catalyst – best ones go on to encompass all life,
spread out into the communities.
Gold Star Communities project which is being piloted in Wales. One example is Pontypridd link with Mbale,
which now is multidimensional. Both ends of the partnerships were worried about all the flying back and forth
and have started an environmental project, re-forestation / solar power, at both ends to compensate for the
carbon emissions. It’s an example of a community partnership making a real difference.
Craig Owen – has VSO captured the ways in which MPs have made an impact? Welsh Assembly MPs have
done similar and share impact with all other MPs.
John Errington – International partnerships contribution to social cohesion back at home is vital
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Laura Moffatt – because of funding we are all results driven – can’t measure the personal relationships, and
outcomes of linking. How do you measure these?
Nick Maurice– One of the things that the 28 year link between Marlborough and its partner a Muslim fishing
village in The Gambia has the impact on the relationship between men and women, it has changed out of all
recognition.
Giving self confidence to those who are so disempowered, through poverty and illness, lack of education etc is
the root of all development. Solidarity with a community in another part of the world builds that confidence.
Ivor Wells – the LGA would be very interested in Julia Goldsworthy’s experience in Cameroon – has there
been any thought given to Local Government staff in the UK to have these opportunities.
Lord Judd – The ‘results driven’ approach to so much of development has done real damage. Need
commitment to development from all political parties. Must keep human dynamic in development. Since the
cause of development has become more mainstream to the international agenda it has become rather remote
from real people. MPs have opportunity to keep human dimension to assist strategically the communities.
Stacey Adams – IPPR has done research on behalf of Raleigh on the impact the experience has had on their
volunteers, it shows enormous change. There is now an opportunity to keep the relationships between
volunteers and the people they worked alongside through Facebook and other networking sites. They didn’t
have this opportunity a few years ago.
Oliver Johnson – Kings College Hospital has link with Somaliland, and has exchanged medical students over
the years. Oliver has built up a relationship with a particular student via technology and this student from
Somaliland will be teaching over the internet students in Kings about Somaliland and the Somalis within the
local community in London.
Kevin Barron – As chair of the Health Select Committee need to do more work in NHS in getting doctors in
the UK to learn and take that learning back.
Katy Newell-Jones – research has been carried out by Tropical Health & Education Trust (THET) and it has
shown that there is not enough bringing back of the benefit. We still focus enormously on what the changes
are happening overseas and the individual changes on the person that has travelled. Are we using enough of
that learning to eg. change attitudes, help diaspora. Only about a quarter of those who had travelled were
using that to help over here.
Cathy Welch – An opportunity to share experiences of PolVols within Constituencies and to work with DFID
on community linking scheme.
Laura Moffatt– she and her colleagues have managed to weave their experiences into their every day work.
There are sorts of ways to gather people who are interested. There has to be something in it for MPs. It has
relevance at home and MPs need to be aware of that.
Lord Judd – tremendous praise to VSO!
Geoffrey Findlay – “discovering who our neighbour is” they may well be around the world but they are also in
the corner shop, living next door etc. If we raise expectations of international partnerships when volunteering
we must sustain those expectations. Do we do enough with the diaspora within our own community.
Reciprocity – could the MPs from the country visited could come back to UK
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Margaret Burr – We must reflect carefully with our partners and ask them to speak out about how they see
the relationship. They are sometimes seen as a resource for the UK.
Craig Owen – challenge for MPs having to defend going away for a few weeks. Linking in Wales it has
strengthened the local community.
Response and final word from Judith Brodie
VSO hasn’t looked at a scheme for local councillors and would be happy to talk to LGA to discuss further.
The PolVol scheme was about making a contribution as part of VSO’s long-term development programmes
and not specifically about MP to MP linking, but reciprocal visits could be a consequence of the MPs visits.
VSO sees volunteering as the beginning of a lifetime of engagement in global issues. VSO is currently
capturing data on the impact RVs have in the UK.
PolVols was only launched properly last year and VSO are still learning from MPs and programmes on how it
can work best. We need to learn more about the overseas impact and impact on UK.
Sir Nigel Thompson, Chair of BUILD thanked Kevin Barron MP for chairing the meeting.
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